Wednesday, 23 December 2015

Taking Stock: Term 1


An evening class at SOW

I’ve been in the Gambia for a few months now, and I’ve taught at SOW (Servants of the Word), this Bible School in the Gambia, for one term. Perhaps I should say, I’ve been taught at this Bible School in the Gambia for one term. Here are some things I’ve learned…

2 mistakes (I’m being selective…)

1. Inappropriate greeting

Week 1 of teaching: Excited and a bit nervous to be about to teach my first class. I pass a senior lady outside the classroom - pursuing politeness I greet her, “Good evening [Name]” - with a warm smile. She looks strangely perturbed and walks past. Word reaches me that she wants to see me. She graciously sits me down and explains that for me, a younger man, to greet her, an older woman simply by her first name is inappropriate and not done… [“Ground, swallow me NOW…!”] Instead, a title such as Aunty or Sister is required. “Ouch” doesn’t even come close.

2. Turning up to teach a class on the tail end of an anaesthetic
[For the gruesome dental details, see post here…] It had been a pretty rough morning in the dentist’s chair. But I had a class to teach that afternoon, and the anaesthetic seemed to be doing its job quite well so, on a relative high from the temporary pain relief, I proceeded as normal. Somehow it stupidly slipped my mind that before long it’d wear off and I’d soon desperately want more painkillers than allowed following the rather brutal treatment.

As the pain began to emerge, I opted for as interactive an approach as I could, to get others to speak (“Interesting - please go on; explain what you mean… What do others think…?”), whilst I half-listened, gazing at my feet, wincing in pain… The effort was short-lived, and I had to abandon ship half-way through the class.

2 examples

1. From the students: humility

In the last chapter of Isaiah’s epic prophecy God says, “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2)

Humility is the most basic attitude that displays an accurate understanding of our smallness, selfishness and sinfulness, and God’s greatness, love and holiness. And the litmus test of true humility is trembling at God’s word - listening eagerly, attentively, obediently to what he has to say.

That is what I have rejoiced to see in students at SOW. I think particularly of two pastors who faithfully attend my classes, each probably almost double my age. There’s M - who travels an hour each way from his village on his old motorbike three times a week. He’s got poor literacy, his eyesight struggles in the dim light, and he often struggles to keep up. But he listens intently and works hard. Or there’s O - a respected pastor and gifted orator. He’s always the first to hand in his assignments, and obviously dedicated to seeking to understand and teach God’s word more accurately. They rightly and humbly tremble before God’s precious word. They are the ones God esteems.

2. From the Director: servant-leadership

Jesus says that he came “not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom” (Mark 10:45). He therefore calls those whom he has served to serve others in the same sacrificial way - as “slaves of all” (Mark 10:44).

Pastor Steven, the Director of SOW, is a beautiful model of a leader who hasn’t forgotten that he is first and foremost a servant. There is naturally much honour, respect and dignity given to elders and leaders here. It makes it extremely tempting to “lord it over” others (Mark 10:42). But Steven is quick humbly to serve, not to be served; quietly to listen, not to speak; generously to give, not to receive. His godly example of humble service and courageous faith flows out of a deep personal devotion to prayer and God’s word. “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” (Mark 10:43). This man is indeed a great servant.

2 wake-up calls

1. What a privilege Bible literacy is

It can feel unnatural to stand up and teach people like M and O mentioned above - they’ve been following Jesus far longer than I have and they’ve learned much more in the school of life than I have. So I take heart from the Apostle Paul telling his protégé Timothy, “Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young…” (1 Timothy 4:12), and telling another church leader Titus (though we don’t know his age) to teach the various age-groups in the church, even “Teach the older men…” (Titus 2:2).

I am sharply aware of the responsibility and privilege I have, that simply because I happen to have grown up and been discipled in a context of excellent and faithful Bible teaching and gospel ministry, I am equipped to a certain extent to help train and encourage guys like these in their ministry here.

OH what they would give to have received the years of careful preaching and simple but rich teaching that I have been blessed with - if they could even imagine it! I’m aware that might sound condescending. But I really believe it is so.

2. What a need there is for Bible training

I’ve noticed a big American ministry online with a project called “Theological Famine Relief”. That might sound outrageous but it really isn’t an exaggeration. So many people in the world are starving for the word of God, which alone gives true and lasting life: “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3). Even Christians who seem mature in some respects, even experienced pastors, often have a dangerously thin understanding of the vital word of God, leaving them precariously close to drifting into seriously harmful error. 
A village church in the Gambia

Who knows why God does things the way he does? But in his sovereign economy, the fact is that today there are many Christians in the West with a clear appreciation and enjoyment of the truths of God’s word for which people here are desperately hungry. And this is not just about pursuing excellence for excellence’s sake. It matters. Anything valuable has deceptive replicas, and that is certainly the case with the truths of God’s word. With eternities at stake, people desperately need to hear the word of God “correctly handled” in order to know the truth and not put up with that which “only ruins those who listen” (2 Timothy 2:14-15).

Jesus said, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out labourers into his harvest field. (Matthew 9:37-38)


[Coming Up Next: continuing the looking back theme, 100 things I’m thankful for from 2015…]


Monday, 21 December 2015

A Rather Different Carol Service


1995

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
Service: Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

Location:  500 year old Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, central England

My role: 
Boy chorister in the cathedral choir (Ahh…)

Music: 
Traditional carols. Top quality classical choral music. World-class organist.

Choir outfit: 
Traditional red cassocks and surpluses

Atmosphere:  
Very English. Very Oxford. Traditional. Very serious. Ticketed entry. Atmospheric dim lighting and candle-lit.

My spiritual understanding:  
Minimal. Enjoyed a rousing (and good quality) sing.

Overriding feeling:  
Excited about unpacking my stocking in the parents’ car on the way home from boarding school.

The massive and impressive Durham Cathedral

2005

Service: 
Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

Location:
1000 year old massive Durham Cathedral, Durham, north England

My role:  
Choral scholar as a university student in the cathedral choir

Music: 
Traditional carols. Pretty good classical choral music…

Choir outfit: 
Palatinate purple cassocks and surpluses

Atmosphere:
Grand. Very English. Traditional. Very serious. Atmospheric dim lighting and candle-lit. 

My spiritual understanding:  
Maturing. A bit concerned by religion overshadowing the gospel message.

Overriding feeling:  All very pleasant, but saddened by those singing "Glory to the newborn King!" who, the rest of the year, really didn’t seem to care about His glory.

With the pastors and choir at NCBC

2015

Service:
Carol of Seven Lessons (I think something got lost in translation…)

Location:
2 year old New Creation Bible Church (NCBC) with incomplete roof and walls, in Kotu slum, the Gambia

My role:
Guest preacher

Music:
Karaoke videos of such classics as “Oh Christmas Tree” (idolatry?!) and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” (appropriate?!) before the start. Then traditional carols sung with African pronunciation, electric keyboard (once he worked out the key for each song), and occasional brilliantly entertaining musical arrangement (with synchronised swaying). The final congregational singing of “Oh come let us adore him - Christ the Lord!” was pretty stirring in its passion and sincerity.

Choir outfit:
Matching red tops with santa hats or red cowboy hats

Atmosphere: Unsurprisingly began an hour late. Cheerful interaction between the pastor leading the service and the congregation throughout, including the occasional spontaneous song. Youth group and children’s groups’ presentations included. Applause after every item. Bright electric lighting except for during the power cut half-way through.

My spiritual understanding:
Privileged to have the opportunity to share the reason for the season - the “good news of great joy for all people” (Luke 2:10) that Jesus our Saviour has come.

Overriding feeling:
Greatly entertained by the unfamiliar expression of Christmas joy, and overflowing with thankfulness for the privilege and opportunity to proclaim Jesus.



Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Heaven - How I Got Here



Don’t worry - Im not there yet... A dear old couple at my home church in Oxford gave me the small book, “Heaven - How I Got Here” by Colin Smith, before I left the UK. It’s just 95 pages long - I recently read it in one evening.

It’s written from the perspective of the then-irrelevant now-famous “thief on the cross”, having died and now in heaven. His story is in Luke’s Gospel (23:32-49), and the book is an amplification of it, drawing on the other Gospels too, with a dash of poetic licence. This is not a full review, just a couple of reflections.


Scandalous grace
The concept of the book is a powerful way of expressing what Jesus’ death on the cross achieved - full and free forgiveness for whoever trusts in him, whenever they trust in him, whatever they’ve done, whatever they will do. What clearer example could we ask for to illustrate that than this man: a hardened terrorist, in the very process of dying, daring to turn to Jesus in simple trust, and receiving from him the certain promise of paradise. Clearly there was nothing in this undeserving rebel to warrant his pardon, and there was no time left for him to “pay it back” either (not that he ever could). Jesus’ blood-won salvation is all of grace.

That’s how that thief got to heaven. And that’s how this sinner writing got to heaven too.

I use the past tense for myself intentionally. The Bible says that salvation through Jesus is so sure and complete - because it is all of his grace - that in a very real sense, I am seated with Jesus in heaven already. I have been given new life by Jesus, which begins now with the assurance of his love and pardon, and which will go on forever in paradise: “the Great Story… which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before” (C.S. Lewis).

I often encounter Christians here in the Gambia - and it’s common all over the world - who react to this scandalous grace saying, “But surely God has standards, and now you reckon you can live however you want?”

By no means! That objection has understood the scandal of grace, but it vastly underestimates the power of Jesus’ love. Jesus rescued me from eternal punishment, for eternal paradise. That is the most astonishing love anyone could ever receive and it has such power that it is unstoppably transformative. The believer’s heart has been replaced and made new, and it is gradually being warmed up to love Jesus more and more because of who he is and what he’s done. I used not to care, but now I hate it when I do or think or say things that displease him (which is always also what’s not best for me or others). Jesus’ love is so powerful that it saves and changes people. Bit by bit, it is changing me.

As the thief “said” (imagined in the book) -

“His cry of anguish tore me apart. If He was given up for my sins, what sin would I not give up for Him? That took hold of me… I found myself longing to be filled with the love that I had seen in Jesus’ eyes, and to live a life that would please Him. I only had a few hours left for that. I hope you have much longer.” (p.74)

The thief got to heaven because of Jesus’ scandalous grace. So did I.

Deathly darkness
One part that really struck me from this little book was the retelling of the darkness that suddenly occurred from 12pm to 3pm on that first Good Friday (Luke 23:44-45). It’s a significant detail that I’ve read and shared with others very many times. But the horror of it hit me anew.

Right in the middle of the day - 3 hours of darkness!! Here in the Gambia it's painfully obvious that 12-3 is the hottest period of the day, as the sun blazes down most fiercely. I never expect to get a lot done in those 3 hours. Can you imagine, at 12 noon, when the sun should be at its brightest and most intense, suddenly you’re plunged into darkness for three… long… mysterious… hours… 

I remember watching the solar eclipse back in 1999 in my parents’ garden, with those apparently protective glasses. It was a bright sunny day, and rather eerie when it went noticeably darker and cooler for a few minutes, and the birds stopped singing. But that doesn’t compare to 3 hours of total darkness! It’s unmistakably supernatural. And it must have been absolutely terrifying.

The rest of the Bible indicates that it was a dramatic sign from God of his anger at sin. What’s most stunning though is where his anger is directed. It’s not at the soldiers mocking and brutally crucifying his Son. It’s not at the authorities, with all their injustice and cowardice. It’s not even at the human race more widely, whose sin made this dreadful event necessary. It’s at Jesus: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross” (1 Peter 2:24). Because he was bearing our sins, he endured the righteous anger of God in our place. 

Can you imagine being there in the darkness? It must have been extremely confusing and disorientating. Yet imagine the relief at 3pm when the darkness lifted. It’s over. It sure is. The light of Jesus came into our dark world, and went to the very darkest place on that cross - facing the wrath of God. And in his scandalous and extravagant grace, he thereby paid the price in full for us to enter heaven.

The price is paid - come let us enter in

To all that Jesus died to make our own.
For every sin more than enough he gave.
And bought our freedom from each guilty stain.



The price is paid, Alleluia!
Amazing grace, so strong and sure!

Graham Kendrick, 1983

As we’re reminded at Christmas services, this momentous good news is “good news of great joy for all people” (Luke 2:10), including North Europeans and West Africans. And it applies in the same way to each of us as it did to that thief on the cross.

The thief got to heaven because Jesus endured that deathly darkness in his place. So did I.

“No one gets in automatically. It’s Jesus who gets you here. Heaven is His home. He holds the key. He opens the door, and if you become His, heaven will be yours… My story proves that getting into heaven depends on Jesus, and on Jesus alone.” (p.87)

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Adapting



Stages of cultural adaptation.


During my Crosslinks Orientation, several times a diagram a bit like the above was referred to. It charts what has been observed as a usual response to transitioning to a new culture. Having been to the Gambia a few times before, I hoped I wasn’t being over-optimistic by expecting the dip to be less severe than it could be. I had 4 months here 10 years ago, and another 4 months here 6 years ago, plus 2 brief visits since. So I had a fair degree of familiarity with the new culture and way of life I was about to dive into.

I’m very thankful to God that, as hoped, the dip hasn’t been too bad. I’m sure it’s because I already had a good idea of what the climate, people, church, living conditions, language situation, etc etc, would all be like. I believe there are even signs of the desired final stage of the process - adapting to accept one’s new culture and new life. Here are a few examples of things I can identify:

I’m not naive enough to presume that everything will just continue getting easier and easier. I know there will be frustrations, challenges and disappointments ahead, just as there are in any context and walk of life. But I’m really thankful for these signs of adapting.

It has certainly felt like someone has been holding my hand and helping me through everything in these first few months…

I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” (Isaiah 41:13)

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

Grace Sufficient for Toothache


A totally unrelated picture of some goats.

“Did the dentist put a golf ball in your mouth?!” - my friend responded to seeing my face. It’s the latest stage of my tooth saga - a hamster-like right cheek, as some kind of mass of puss and blood and who-knows-what builds up around an infection.

When the toothache began I optimistically hoped it might just die down again. It didn’t, and I realised the tooth that was hurting was the one I’d had root canal treatment on in England about a year ago. I remembered my dentist saying that, whilst he felt a good job had been done, he couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t flare up again sometime… I also remember thinking, “I hope it doesn't in the Gambia.”

As always seems to happen, the weekend was approaching as the pain was increasing. A phone call home on Friday evening was met with urges to get it looked at as soon as possible. But I knew that the next day was the monthly National Cleaning Day - the last Saturday of every month - when everyone has to clean their compound. Public services like dentists or transport wouldn’t be available. So I’d have to wait until Monday, which felt a long way away.

Treatment time...

It was the first of several sleepless nights, as the painkillers wore off and I waited in pain for the clock to crawl on to when I could take more. Then in the morning I heard Mama on the phone giving my name to someone and arranging an appointment. She felt so concerned that she went ahead and phoned a friend who knew the wife of a decent dentist. Though he doesn’t normally work on Saturdays he agreed to see me, and was able to do so because the cleaning day had been cancelled!

After a quick prod around, the dentist explained that he’d have to essentially undo and redo the root canal treatment - sometimes an infection can still flare up underneath the good work that’s been done, and it needs to be reached and dealt with. I thanked him and trusted him, and I thanked and trusted God whose hands I was in. I just had to trust that the tools were all good and clean.

My least favourite part is always the anaesthetic injection. But it was over before long and my mouth duly grew numb. Then began operation Dislodge-Crown and Remove-Filling. I’d opted for what was meant to be the strongest and most durable type of crown - gold - placing one of my most valuable possessions in my mouth. Not for much longer! But being such a smooth and strong metal, it turns out it’s not terribly easy to remove it from the tooth that it’s crowning. A prolonged assault on it with various techniques ensued - some kind of big metal pumping lever, some kind of burning instrument, leaving the strange taste of burning metal in my mouth, and lots of banging and drilling. Finally, “twunk” - off it came. It lodged in the back of my throat and I was about to swallow it! The dentist calmly said, “Don’t swallow. Cough.” Phew! Gold (albeit singed round the edge) recovered.

Then began the real work. The tooth in question is the penultimate molar on the bottom right. Those fellas go pretty deep. And the filling went all the way down, into all three roots. It took a lot of drilling through the metal filling to clear it out, with shards of the stuff spraying over my mouth and down my throat. Yummy. No assistant on hand with that suction thing. I think it was around this time that the dentist confessed, “This would be a lot easier if I hadn’t forgotten my glasses”. Oh. I wasn’t in much of a position to respond beyond, “Huh”, and to keep praying.

Eventually he reached the bottom and injected some kind of medicine, which hit a nerve and made my legs fly up into the air in pain. Why that won out over the anaesthetic I don’t know. It all felt like a long and pretty brutal operation. I tried to take my mind of it by singing in my head words to some of my favourite songs, which lifted my spirit to truths far bigger and more important and more joyous and eternal: “In Christ alone my hope is found; he is my light, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm…” I got through all 4 verses of that, all 3 verses of Before the Throne of God Above and all 4 verses of I Stand Amazed in the Presence.

It was an hour and a half after the appointment began when I walked out. I was relieved that it was over; hoping that the treatment would be successful; thankful for the dentist’s kindness, seeing me on his day off; humbled by the awareness that many people here wouldn’t be able to afford treatment. Naively forgetting that the anaesthetic would wear off before long, I went along to the Bible school class I was meant to be teaching soon after. I just about stumbled through it, as my mouth gradually came to terms with what had just happened, and made the class as interactive as I possibly could, to minimise time speaking and take attention off me.

Since then I’ve been living on painkillers, waiting for the body to heal itself, and latterly watching this swelling develop, which the dentist is keeping an eye on.

— 

Grace Sufficient

All of that is not exactly unique. It’s a common problem, and common treatment. So why would I blog about it? Partly the distance between me and friends back home just makes me long to fill (ba-dum, tssh) people in. More than that though, I want to testify to this being an example of God’s good hand at work even in what has been very painful and unpleasant. How so?

The physical pain after the operation was very severe, some of the worst I’ve felt, as my mouth adjusted to the pretty brutal trauma it had received in the dentist's chair. Painkillers that had to last 6 hours would wear off after 3, leading to an infuriating and prolonged limbo experience of wanting to do something to distract me from the pain, but being unable to concentrate on anything sufficiently.

But the physical pain was confounded by the emotional pain of grieving the weakness and fragility of my body, being not wholly sure of the quality of the treatment, and all far away from home, just wishing I could have family or friends around to lend a sympathetic ear and give me a hug.

As I said though, I see God’s good hand in it all. I’ve just today remembered that soon before the toothache kicked in I was reading an excellent book about John Newton (famous for writing Amazing Grace), in which I read and highlighted this:

Trials remedy fictional escapism. Trials are the onrush of stinging realism crashing the idealised party we call “life”. When these serious trials interrupt our lives we “run simply and immediately to our all-sufficient Friend, feel our dependence, and cry in good earnest for help”. But when all is well, when life seems peaceful and prosperous, and when the difficulties in life are small then “we are too apt secretly to lean to our own wisdom and strength, as if in such slight matters we could make shift without him.” We lose out on communion with Christ.
Tony Reinke, Newton on the Christian Life, p.82 (quotes are Newton) 

Times like these force me to “run simply and immediately to” Christ. And that is so good for me because he is the only “all-sufficient Friend” and the only ever reliable and faithful source of comfort, love and strength. It reminds me that I can’t even “make shift without him”. Furthermore his grace and strength and power are displayed in and through me all the more brightly and clearly when I am most conscious of my weakness and most “feel [my] dependence”.

You don’t have to read the Bible for long before you clearly see the folly of the dangerously misleading yet ever popular “Health, Wealth and Prosperity” message, which poses as the Christian gospel in many churches here, and around the world. The apostle Paul wrote:

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
2 Corinthians 1:8-9 

Not exactly health, wealth and prosperity. Not exactly “your best life now”. Every single New Testament writer clearly communicates that there will be trials, battles and hardships as we follow Jesus in this fallen world. But the child of God can know with confidence that all such things come under the sovereign control and loving wisdom of our Father. And God uses them so that we will learn that he truly is reliable - he absolutely and uniquely can be relied upon, even ultimately to raise us from death. Trials develop perseverance which leads to maturity (James 1), this perseverance produces character and hope (Romans 5), trials prove the genuineness of our faith resulting in praise to Jesus (1 Peter 1), and they aren’t even worth comparing with our future glory (Romans 8).

So trials are to be expected. But God is at work for our good through them. And since God wants to grow and mature his children, we can trust that he uses these trials to prepare us to trust him, rely on him and glorify him in greater trials ahead. I don’t expect this to be the last or the most severe trial that I face!

So like Paul in his pain…

I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 


It’s only a tooth; many suffer much more. 
Who knows what future trials lie in store? 
May you and I learn, in whatever we face, 
That in Christ alone is sufficient grace.